"Like Cabinda, Lunda - currently divided into Lunda-Norte and Lunda-Sul - also came together in Portuguese colonial Angola through protectorate treaties, signed in 1885 and following years by local authorities, and by Henrique Carvalho, a Portuguese military man , which represented Portugal ", and fit into the territorial occupation strategy resulting from the Berlin Conference that same year, explains Alberto Oliveira Pinto, professor and researcher at the History Center of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon and CEsA - Centro de Studies on Africa and Latin America at ISEG (Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão).
"The legitimacy of these treaties is similar to that of the Treaty of Simulambuco, of Cabinda", whose anniversary of its signature in 1885 is marked on 1 February, says also Eugénio Costa Almeida, a researcher at the Center for International Studies at the University Institute of Lisbon (CEI -IUL).
The expert reinforces: "The legitimacy of the Lundas to claim independence or autonomy in relation to Angola is identical to that of the Cabindans".
However, diamond mining in the region has always been the main fuel for autonomous claims in the region, which "is a powder keg", considers Oliveira Pinto, just as oil stimulates nationalist impetus in Cabinda.
There is an "old record of discontent in relation to the political power of the MPLA [Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola], as well as in relation to UNITA itself [National Union for the Total Independence of Angola], which, as is known, at the time of Jonas Savimbi was also interested in diamond mining in Lundas ", says the historian. Since the beginning of the 20th century, diamonds have been exploited in the region and "evidently, this has always accentuated the desire for autonomy of local populations", he adds.
Henrique Carvalho, explains the professor at the Faculty of Arts, arrived in Lunda, where he stayed for a long time, with the task of signing a protectorate treaty with the Kingdom of Muatiânvua, which brought together a series of state units called by the Portuguese military as "Império Lunda ". This empire covered not only the current Lundas, North and South, in Angola, but also Alto Catanga, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and also extended to a part of Zambia
Oliveira Pinto points out, on the other hand, that Lunda Tchokwe has been represented by a political party, at least since the September 1992 elections in Parliament, the Social Renewal Party (PRS), which "was practically an ethnic party, say thus, constituted by deputies lunda tchokwe, or lunda kioko, which is the same, which was, in fact, the third most voted party in these elections, after MPLA and UNITA ".
The police violently repressed last Saturday a demonstration called by the Movement of the Portuguese Protectorate of Lunda Tchokwe (MPPLT), in the village of Cafunfo, municipality of Cuango, in the province of Lunda-Norte, to mark the 127th international recognition of the treaty of Portuguese protectorate of Lunda.
Police accuse MPPLT members of attempting to break into a Cafunfo police station, an incident that was suppressed resulting in six deaths and several injuries. The MPPLT contradicts the police version, claiming that security forces fired indiscriminately at unarmed protesters, causing 15 dead and 10 injured, including a child.
The level of police violence surprised Eugénio Almeida, who calls attention to the fact that the MPPLT claims to be recognized politically by the State itself. "They themselves indicate that they were received at a ceremony at the Palácio da Cidade Alta, in Luanda, in December 2017", he points out.
The MPPLT underlines, in a text that Lusa had access to, having been founded in 2006 and in 2007 produced its political manifesto, which will have "handed over to the MPLA Government and the other political parties, the international community and the Holy See, in Rome. ", and claims to have been" accepted and registered "by the US Secretary of State.
"They called for the demonstration in November, according to the constitutional precepts, article 47, and have long denounced arbitrary arrests of its members," added the investigator.
The autonomy of the Lundas region (Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul, in the east), rich in diamonds, is claimed by this movement which is based on a Protectorate Agreement signed between natives Lunda-Tchokwe and Portugal in the years 1885 and 1894, which would give the internationally recognized status.
Portugal would have ignored the condition of the kingdom when it negotiated the independence of Angola between 1974/1975 only with the liberation movements, according to the movement.
